Szeged Votive Church

The Tisza broke its banks in March 1879 and destroyed most of Szeged. The city was rebuilt on a new plan of ring boulevards and radiating avenues, and vowed to raise a church in thanks for its survival. Work began in 1913, stopped, and finished in 1930. The result is a very large brick building with two towers over ninety metres tall and a dome between them, in a heavy Romanesque revival that looks older than it is. Inside, a mosaic of the Virgin in Hungarian folk costume fills the apse and the organ is among the largest in the country. Frigyes Schulek's arcade encloses the square, and a small medieval brick tower, the oldest structure in Szeged, stands beside the west front.

History

After the flood of March 1879 the people of Szeged pledged to build a church, and the site chosen was that of the medieval St. Demeter Church, of which only the Dömötör tower, now the oldest building in the city, remains. Thirty-five designs were entered in a competition, the foundation was laid on 21 June 1914, and the church, designed by Frigyes Schulek, was completed in 1930, when it became the cathedral of the Diocese of Csanád (Wikipedia, Votive Church, Szeged).

Highlights

• The apse mosaic - the Virgin shown in Hungarian folk dress above the altar.
• The organ - one of the largest instruments in the country, used for recitals.
• The Demetrius tower - the squat medieval brick tower, the city's oldest building.
• The arcaded square - Schulek's colonnade running round three sides of Dom Square.

When to go

Spring and early autumn. The open-air theatre festival takes over the square for several weeks in summer, when a stage and banked seating stand in front of the church and views of the facade are blocked, though the performances themselves are the reason many people come to Szeged at all. Organ recitals run through the year and are the best way to hear the instrument.

Things to know

Dom Square is enormous and completely bare, which makes it brutal in July heat and bitter in a winter wind. The interior is darker than the scale suggests and the mosaics are hard to make out unless the lights are on. The tower visit uses a lift and the view is of a very flat city. The church is only a century old and reads as such up close.

Nearby

The New Synagogue, the Reok Palace and the Tisza embankment are all within twenty minutes on foot.

Key facts